De-bunking Fundraising Myths – Part 7 (of 12)

We’ve all heard myths about fundraising. These often lead us to do the exact opposite of what we should be doing to raise money. We’ll be running a twelve part series de-bunking fundraising myths to take a close look at these false assumptions about giving.

This is the seventh in the series and we will run one each month (if you can’t wait to a year to read all of them you can purchase the book Beyond Fundraising: A Complete Guide to Congregational Stewardship and read them in Chapter 1: The Spiritual Roots of Stewardship). Are large givers going to barricade the road we wish to travel down?

As always, we encourage you to leave comments.

Fundraising Myth #7

Myth: Generous givers feel entitled to complain loudly when things do not go their way. They attempt to “hold the congregation hostage” by threatening to eliminate their financial and volunteer support.

Truth: There may be a few generous givers who feel entitled , but not many. Fundraising consultants have an axiom that says, “People who give the most complain the least; those who give the least complain the most.” People are more committed to faith communities when they give joyfully of their aptitudes, abilities, and money (their gifts), when they willingly proclaim the faith community’s good works (their call), and when they participate in the work (spiritual vocation) of their faith community. With few exceptions, the most committed congregants are those who are helpful and supportive to a fault. The people who are vocal obstructionists often lead with their heels, giving little of their gifts, call, or spiritual vocation to their faith community.